Merit of common cartridges? AR & Bolt?

[PNW_Steve]

Hello Everyone,

I am puttering with a couple of projects. I would probably get further faster if I just picked one.....

I am building an AR-15 in .243 LBC which is basically a 6.5 Grendel necked down to 6mm/.243.

I have a Howa 1500 .308 with a 22" bull barrel. I have been planning on re-barreling in .243 Win or 6mm Creedmore and dropping it in a reasonable chassis. Now I am starting to think that I may want to focus on a single cartridge.

What do you think of doing barrel & bolt on the Howa to chamber it in .243 LBC? The LBC gives up a fair bit of case capacity but should be easier on barrels. Another question is, the Howa is a short action and not a mini action, is that going to cause a problem?

Am I creating a solution to a problem that does not exist?

Thanks.

S.

 

[hlee]

Do you want grendel performance from your short action bolt gun? If so, go that route. But, you're really not going to be burning up a bolt gun barrel like you might an AR15 barrel anyway. Might as well get as much performance as you can from the manual gun.

 

[PNW_Steve]

Do you want grendel performance from your short action bolt gun? If so, go that route. But, you're really not going to be burning up a bolt gun barrel like you might an AR15 barrel anyway. Might as well get as much performance as you can from the manual gun.

I am not a slave to the chronograph. I care about where the holes showup on a target or game as well as energy on target. 243 Win or 6mm Creedmore would have a greater range of loading where the LBC will run out of poop before the Winchester or Creedmore. The hunting around here can vary a lot but must shots are taken from less than 200 yards. The LBC will do a deer justice pushing a 100gr Sierra Game King out to 250 yards with plenty of energy for our local deer.

Maybe I will hold off on the bolt gun until I see how the 6mm AR plays. The only problem there is that my AR barrel will not be done until July and if I wait until August to order my barrel for the bolt gun, and loads worked up, before deer season.

 

[hlee]

I think cartridge commonality is over rated. Some people have gun ROOMS filled with rifles in 1 caliber. I'm not arming a platoon, so each rifle fills a niche. For me, a bolt gun in an ar15 caliber occupies a niche better filled with an ar15. 6mm creedmoor gives more performance than the lbc, with the added advantage of available factory match ammunition. But, if you can hunt with an ar15 where you live, there is no rush t make a decision.

 

[spife7980]

I think cartridge commonality is over rated.

Yep, makes it boring.

 

[PNW_Steve]

Point taken. Two niches, two cartridges.

I am still set on an AR in 6mm. I am going to set the bolt gun project on hold for a while and focus on the AR.

That would have made things simple, then I started thinking : AR-15 in .243 LBC or AR-10 in .243 Win or 6mm Creedmoor.......

Nah, I think I will stick with the 15 in LBC and focus on the bigger cases when I build my next bolt gun.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Steel head]

Besides possibly a 223 AR and bolt gun Or 9mm handgun and AR I’d never have multiple firearms in the same cartridge

 

[Red_SC]

I used to have a bolt gun and a gas gun in 6mm SLR back before the Creedmore was a thing. Now the bolt gun is a 6mm Creedmoor, and I just rebarreled the gas gun to 6mm Creedmoor. I just need to drill the gas port.

I do like having caliber options. Sometimes I also like having the option to choose the platform that I want to shoot a particular caliber out of.

 

[Ridenemwild]

I have been considering the same choice. I definitely think a 6mm AR is perfect and a 6 creedmoor would be the perfect big brother to it. Especially for Southern USA deer.

 

[PNW_Steve]

Besides possibly a 223 AR and bolt gun Or 9mm handgun and AR I’d never have multiple firearms in the same cartridge

I have zero interest in a .223 bolt gun but I do like my 9mm pistol and AR. I can run any of my pistol loads in the AR but some of my AR 9mm loads don't feed reliably in my pistol and some are just unpleasant to shoot in the pistol.

 

[stilesg57]

I went a weird direction with 6.5 Grendel. Was long interested in the caliber, finally got around to putting together an AR15 in Grendel, then liked the caliber as a hunting round for light micro-length actions and decided to get a bolt action in it...

Now I have two bolt action rifles in 6.5 Grendel and no ARs in it. Life is funny.

So yeah, I wouldn't be afraid of chambering multiple guns in the same caliber, especially if it’s one that fills different roles in when in different configurations.

BTW: the two bolts are a Howa Mini and a CZ 527. The CZ is the prettier rifle and the Howa is the better rifle in this case, in case anyone was wondering.